Hierotheos (Vlachos)
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Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) (born 1945) is a Greek theologian.
Born in Ioannina, Greece, he graduated from the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki and was ordained deacon in 1971 and priest in 1972. Served in the Archdiocese of Athens as a preacher and Director of the Youth Section from 1987 to 1995. He taught Greek and lectured on Orthodox Ethics at the St. John of Damascus Theological School of the Patriarchate of Antioch in northern Lebanon for several semesters. He was elected bishop of Nafpaktos in 1995.
[edit] Work
A prolific writer, Hierotheos has published more than 60 books in Greek. Several of them have been translated into other languages, including English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Chinese.
His studies are based on patristic theology and extend it to issues of contemporary interest. His readings of the hesychast Fathers of the Philokalia and his long association with present-day hesychasts at the Holy Mountain and elsewhere have led him to the conclusion that Orthodox theology is a science of the healing of man. This is a topic explored in his innovative book on "Orthodox Psychotherapy" (1986). Other topics analyzed in his works include the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, orthodox monasticism, and pastoral care. His most recent book deals with issues of genetics and bioethics, viewed from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
Works translated into English include: "A night in the desert of the Holy Mountain", "Orthodox Psychotherapy", "The illness and cure of the soul in the Orthodox Tradition", "Orthodox Spirituality", "A visual catechism of the Orthodox Church", "Life after Death", "Saint Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite", "The Feasts of the Lord", "The human body: Ascesis and Exercise", "The Person in the Orthodox Tradition". The latter book was awarded the first prize for the "top theological work written in Greece in 1991-96" by the Academy of Athens.
[edit] Quotes
"Paradise and Hell are an energy of the uncreated grace of God, as men experience it, and therefore they are uncreated. According to the holy Fathers of the Church, there is not an uncreated Paradise and a created Hell, as the Franco-Latin tradition teaches". "Paradise and Hell exist not in the form of a threat and a punishment on the part of God but in the form of an illness and a cure. Those who are cured and those who are purified experience the illuminating energy of divine grace, while the uncured and ill experience the caustic energy of God." "Those who have selfless love and are friends of God see God in light - divine light, while the selfish and impure see God the judge as fire - darkness". (From: "Life After Death").
